Sunday, January 9, 2011

Wicked Miniseries

I love Wicked. I moderate one of the largest facebook fan pages for WICKED.

I have to admit, I have not seen Wicked the musical yet due to schedule, money and location. But I have heard the soundtrack AND most importantly, read, re-read and shared Gregory Maguire's novel 'Wicked' which the musical is based, as well as it's sequel 'Son of a Witch' and \A Lion Among Men'. I am a huge fan of Gregory Maguire's writing and have several of his other books also. He is also allegedly working on a 4th in the 'Wicked' series tentatively titled 'Out of Oz'

ABC is looking to get back in the event mini-series business with Wicked, an eight-hour mini-series produced by Salma Hayek, TVLine's Michael Ausiello reports. The project is not based on the highly-successful Broadway musical but on Gregory McGuire's bestselling book that spawned it. Despite a long tradition of TV musicals like Cinderella, Annie and The Music Man at ABC that flourished under Susan Lyne as head of TV movies and mini-series and then entertainment president, the genre disappeared from the network under Lyne's successor Stephen McPherson. In fact, McPherson passed on the Wicked mini-series a couple of year ago, a decision that was reversed by new ABC president Paul Lee. Wicked, which is in active development, is being produced by ABC Studios and Hayek and Jose Tamez's studio-based Ventanarosa Prods. Erik Jendersen (Band of Brothers) is writing the script. For now, there are no plans for Hayek to star. Coincidentally, ABC and ABC Studios are developing a comedy musical series starring Idina Menzel, who originated the role of Elphaba in the Wicked Broadway musical, winning a Tony for the part. The musical, perennial top Broadway grosser that premiered in 2003, is currently being developed as a feature.